Acyl dicyandiamides and salts thereof



Patented Sept. 3, 1946 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ACYL DICYANDIAMIDES AND SALTS THEREOFY' Donald W. Kaiser'and Jack Thurston, Rivers'ide, Conn, assignors to American Cyanannd Company, New York, N. Y.', a corporation of N6 mating. Application Ma; 30, 1942, serial No. 445,206

15Clainis. (Cicely-551) is a compound having an almost completely neutral reaction in water, its dissociation constant having been reported as (l.6 10 at 25 C., We have found that it will react with acylating agents in the presence of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal oxide or hydroxide and water to yield acylated dicyandiamides.

The reaction whereby our new acyl dicyandiamides are prepared is brought about by simply mixing dicyandiamide with a desiredacylating agent of the type to be hereinafter described and a water-soluble alkali metal or alkaline earth metal oxide or hydroxide in the presence of water. The amount of Water employed in the reaction mixture should be comparatively small and in some cases the water present in the reagents is sufiicient for the purpose... In order to conduct the reaction in a fluid medium the water may be supplemented with other solvents preferably none hydroxylated and also preferably miscible with water. Non-hydroxylated' solvents are preferred since hydroxylated solvents such as alcohol tend to react with the acyl halides. Of these solvents, dioxane and acetone have been used with good results. Ether and benzene may also be employed as solvents for the acylating agentbut since. they are not miscible with water they are not usually employed. Ordinarily only enough solvent, inclucling water, is employed to solubilize the reactants.

Although the reaction is ordinarily carried, out at about room temperatures it may in some cases be advantageous to cool the reaction mixture to decrease the tendency of side reactions to occur. Although elevated temperatures may be employed temperatures in excess of about 60 C. should not be maintained for any appreciable time because of the tendency of dicyandiamide and the reaction product itself to decompose at high temperatures. 1

v The product formed in the alkaline reaction mixture is the corresponding" alkali metal. or alkaline earth metal" salt of an acyl dicyandiamide; The acylated dicyand'iamide' itself may be recovered as such from magnetron of its salt by neutralization with an acid pre'ferably a weak acid such as acetic or propionic, although mineral acids such as I-ICl, HzSOt, H3PO4, HzSOs, etc., may be employed. Neutralization of the. alkaline reaction mixture with such acids will cause the precipitation of the acyl dicyandiamide as such. The crystalline product may then be recovered by decantation or filtration and purified by washing and/or recrystallization as described in the specific examples.

The reaction may be carried out with any Water soluble alkali metal or alkaline earth metal oxide or hydroxide such as those of sodium, potassium, barium; strontium, lithium, etc. Since water is present in the reaction mixture the addition of an oxide is equivalent to the addition of a corre- 5 spending hydroxide, and hereinafter and in the claims, reference to the useof ,an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal hydroxide contemplates the use of the corresponding oxide. The amount of alkali metal or alkaline earth metal hydroxide 2O employed should be suflicient to give the reaction mixture a strongly alkaline reaction and therefore when employing acylat-ing agents having neutralizable acid groups the amount of alkaline material should be sufiicient to react with these groups and still provide an excess alkali. It is also pointed out that. during the reaction an acid group is formed, I-I Cl when using anacyl chloride and acarboxylio acid group when using an acid anhydride as acylating agent, and there fore sufiicient alkali must be used to neutralize these groups. I v v 7 Although the mechanism of our reaction has not been definitely established as yet we believe that it involves the formation of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal salt of dicyand-iamide in an. intermediate stage. Accordingly an alkali metaloran alkaline earthmetal salt of dicyandiamide'.may' be employedin the reaction mixture and the corresponding alkali eliminated. How- 40 ever, the alkali metal or alkaline'earth metal of dicyandiamide hydrolyzes so easily in the presence of water that ineiie'ct the reaction mixture comprises an acyl'atin'g aglenty dic'yandiamide and an alkalinietal or alkaline earth meta hydroxide.

11 11 thereaction mixture we may use acylating agents such as the acyl halides and acid anh'y drides. Of the acyl halideswe prefer the acyl chlorides because of their greater availability and cheapness butwe may use the acyl. bromides and in some cases the acyl iodides to good advantage.

y g agntsuiatmay be employed amine anhydrides of aliphatic and aromatic polycar- .boxylic acids such as sebacic. acid, adipic acid;

succinic acid, -methylitaco-nic acid, citric acid,' phthalic acid, hexahydrophthalic acid and others. We may also employ the acid halides or anhyg drides of acids such as benzoic acid, p-amino v benzoic acid, p-acetylaminobenzoic acid, p-nitrobenzoic acid, p-hydrcxybenzoic acid, p-acetoxy benzoic acid, a-naphthoic acid, ,c--su1fonaphthoic acid, cyclohexylacetic acid, hexahydrobenzoic acid, cyclopentylacetie acid and others of related character.

, When employing as acylating agents the halides of polycarboxylic acids such as sebacyl chloride, adipyl chloride, hexahydrophthalyl chloride, phthalyl chloride,etc., products are obtained having two dicyandiamide radicals such'as sebacyl bis-dicyandiamide and adipyl"bis-dicyandiam-ide. These compounds are also acylated dicyandiamides and fall within the scope of our invention.

Our invention will now be illustrated by means 7 of the following specific examples which are given, however, by way of illustration only, and are not to be construed as limiting our invention thereto; since obviously other acylating agents and reaction conditions may be employed without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

EXAMPLE 1 Benzoyl dicyancliamide 163.5 g. of 95% sodium hydroxide dissolved in 125 cc. of water were placedin a three-necked fiask provided with a stirrer, dropping funnel, and thermometer. 63 g. of pulverized dicyandiamide was added to the sodium hydroxide solution with stirring until dissolved. 7 tone Was then added. The resulting double layer was agitated thoroughly and the temperature kept between 25 C. while 70.25 g. of benzoyl chloride was added in the course of /2 hour. During this time a solid separated but addition of water after the reaction was complete gave a clear, very light yellow solution. Acidification of the solution with acetic acid precipitated a colorless solid which was filtered, washed well with water and allowed to air dry. The product, benzoyl dicyandiamide, was recovered with a yield of 71.5%.

A sample of the above product was purified by rapid crystallization from butanol to yield beautiful plate-like crystals decomposing at 190-191 C. when heated. Chemical analysis of the prod- 65 uct checked closely with the calculated values for cgnsmo. 1

EXAMPLE 2 Bcnzoyl dicyandiamide To 16.8 grams of finely pulverized dicyandiamide and 13 g; of 95% sodium hydroxide suspended in 250 cc. of dioxane, 28.1 g. of benzoyl chloride was added gradually with stirring. The temperature of the reaction mixture was kept below 40 0. throughout the reaction. The result.-

150 cc. of acetime ing solid product was filtered, dissolved in water and acidified with acetic acid. ,The crystalline precipitate, benzoyl dicyandiamide, was recovered by filtration with a yield of 40%.

" EXAMPLE 3 Acetyl dicycmdiamide To a. solution (r422 g. of 95% sodium hydroxide in 100 cc. of water was added 50.4 g. of dicyandiamide and 250 cc. of acetone. The mixture was stirred and 51 g. of acetic anhydride-was added at such a rate that the temperaturewas maintained at -i&0 C. After addition of the acetic anhydride, water was added and the clear solution acidified with acetic acid whereupon col.-

" orless crystals of acetyl dicyandiamide were obtained. The product was washed well with water and allowed to dry. 7

20 g. of acetyl dicyandiamide were crystallized from hot water containing about 10% of Cellosolve. After filtering and drying an amorphous appearing solid was obtained which decomposed at 240 C. when immersed in a hot oil bath at this temperature. Chemical analysis of the purified sample gave the following results:

Per cent Per cent Per cent c N Oalculatedfor ciao-N 38.08 4.76 44.44 Found 38. 19 4.98 44.18

, EXAMPLE 4 Cdproyl dicyandiamide Y i A solution of 84.4 g. of 95% sodium hydroxide in 300 cc. ofiwater was prepared and divided into two equal portions. One part placed in a three-necked flask equipped with a stirrer, thermometer and two dropping funnels. 126 g. of dicyandiam ide and 300 cc. of acetone were added to the caustic soda solution in the flask. The mixture in the flask was stirred and maintained at 20 C. while the second portion of the alkali solution was added simultaneously with 134.5 g. of capro-yl'chloride. After the addition was completed the reactionmixture was diluted with wa- .ter and acidified with acetic acid'whereby'a col- 'orless solid'was precipitated. The material was When dryfiltered. and washed well with water. the crystals melted at 171-173" C. Crystallization of 103 g. of the product, caproyl .dicyandiamide, from ethyl alcohol gave 76g. of beautiful, large plate-like crystals which melted at 179-180" c. Dilution of the filtrate gave an additional crop of crystals weighing 18 g. when dried and melting at 179l80 C. Chemical analysis of the purified product gave the following results:

Per cent Per cent Per cent Calculated for oanlmlo, 52. 74 i 7; 69 30.76

Found 52. 95 7. 77 so. 45

EXAMPLE 5 To a solution containing 66g. of 85% potassium hydroxide in 200 cc. of water was added 126 g. of dicyandiamide and 300 cc. of acetone. The

' mixture was cooled to 20 C. and stirred while 219 g. of lauroylchloride was slowly added simultaneously with another solution of 66 g. of potassium hydroxide in cc. of water. The mixture was then acidified with acetic acid diluted with water and the precipitated product filtered as dry as possible. The damp solid was dissolved in hot acetone and a little Cellosolve, decolorizin carbon was added and the material filtered. On cooling, glistening, colorless plates separated. A portion of these crystals were dissolved in methyl ethyl ketone and recrystallized to give beautiful plates which melted at l66l67 C. On chemical analysis the carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen values gave close agreement with the theoretical values for the lauroyl dicyandiamide, C14H26N40.

EXAMPLE 6 (A) Scbacyl bis-dicyandiamide (B) w-c'arborypelargonyl dicyandiamide 168 g. of dicyandiamide was suspended in a mixture of 100 cc. of water and 200 cc. of acetone and 320 cc. of 50% aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide was added to the cold suspension. 179 g. (.75 mole) of crude sebacyl chloride, prepared by treating sebacic acid with a slight excess of thionyl chloride and heating until no more HCl was evolved, was added slowly over a period of 1.5 hours, during which time the solution was vigorously stirred and cooled to 5-l0 C. Stirring was continued for /2 hour more and the reaction mixture made neutral with hydrochloric acid. A gray white precipitate of sebacyl bis-dicyandiamide was obtained. The product was purified by dissolving it in 2 liters of water containing 100 cc. of 50% sodium hydroxide. The solution was then filtered and the product precipitated by making the solution neutral with hydrochloric acid. After washing with water the product was vacuum dried.

The filtrate obtained from the recovery of the crude sebacyl bis-dicyandiamide was further acidified to a pH of about 3.0 and 37.8 g. of impure w-carboxypelargonyl dicyandiamide was obtained as a gelatinous material.

EXAMPLE 7 (A) Adz'pyl bis-dicyandiamide (B) w-carboacy-n-valeryl dicyandiamide To 109 g. of dicyandiamide suspended in a mixture of 150 cc. of water and 400 cc. of acetone was added 240 cc. of aqueous 50% sodium hydroxide. 92 g. (0.5 mole) of crude adipyl chlorid prepared by treating adipic acid with a slight excess of thionyl chloride was added slowly over a period of about one hour during which time the temperature was maintained at about 5 C. and the reaction mixture was well stirred. The clear solution was then made neutral with hydrochloric acid and adipyl bis-dicyandiamide was precipitated as a finely divided solid. The product was filtered, washed and dried in a desiccator.

The filtrate from the above precipitation was acidified to a pH of about 3 whereupon w-carboxyn-valeryl dicyandiamide was precipitated. The product was filtered, recrystallized from methanol, recover d and dried. On heating a sample of the product was found to decompose at about 170 C.

EXAMPLE 8 p-Nitrobenzoyl dicyandiamide 18.5 g. of p-nitrobenzoyl chloride was dissolved in 50 cc. of acetone and added to a cold mixture of 20 cc. of 50% sodium hydroxide, 10 g. of dicyandiamide, 50 cc. of acetone and cc. of water. The temperature was kept at 5-10 C. and the addition was complete in /2 hour. The mixture solution neutral.

Per cent Per cent Per cent 0 H N p-Nitrobenzoyl dicyandiamide. 46. 3. 0 30. 04 Found 46. 62 3. 41 30. 49

EXAMPLE 9 w-Carboxypmpionyl dicyandiamide 29.2 g. of succinic anhydride was dissolved in 100 cc. of acetone and added to a cooled mixture of 33.6 g. of dicyandiamide, 72 cc. of a aqueous solution'of sodium hydroxide, 25 cc. of water and 50 cc. of acetone with stirring over a period of hour while maintaining the temperature of the reaction mixture between 5-8 C. At the end of this time 50 cc. of water were added and the mixture stirred continuously for /2 hour at 0-5 C. The mixture was then diluted with water, neutralized carefully with concentrated HCland the bulk of the acetone removed. The product, orcarboxy-propionyl dicyandiamide, was recovered by adjusting the resulting solution to a pH of 7 about 3 and cooling. It was further purified by redissolving in an alkaline solution and reprecipitating at a pH of about 3.

EXAMPLE 1O o-Carboarybenzoyl "dicyandiamide 126 g. of dicyandiamide was added to a mixture of 100 cc. of water and 300 cc. of acetone. 280 cc. of a 50% aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide was then added at 58 C. 180 g. of powdered phthalic anhydride was added to the reaction mixture in the course of e to hours at 5-8 C. and the mixture stirred at this temperature for hour more. 500 cc. of water was then added and then sufficient concentrated HCl to make the Most of the acetone was then removed under vacuum. The product, o-carboxybenzoyl dicyandiamide was recovered by acidifying the resulting solution to a pH of about 3.

.Uponfiltering, washing with water and drying,

EXAMPLE 11 p-Hydrorylbeneoyl dicyandiamide 79 g. of dicyandiamide suspended in cc. of water was cooled to 10 C. and 360 cc. of an aqueous solution of 50% sodium hydroxide addedwith stirring. 259 cc. of acetone was then added and was followed by the addition of g. (0.5 mole) of crude p-acetoxybenzoyl chloride,

onto 0 o-Qo o 01 with stirring over a period of about 1 hour while maintaining the temperature of the reaction mixamount of water being not substantially in excess of that required to dissolve the reactants.

13. The new compounds formed by neutralization of the reaction product obtained upon mixing together and reacting at temperatures not in excess of about 60 C. a carboxylic acid chloride, dicyandiamide, sodium hydroxide and water, the amount of water being not substantially in excess of that required to dissolve the reactants.

14. Cationic salts of the new compounds of claim 11.

15. The new compound formed by mixing together and reacting at a temperature not in excess of about 60 C. benzoyl chloride, dicyandiamide, an alkali-metal hydroxide, and a small amount of water.

DONALD W. KAISER. JACK T. THURSTON. 

